UK government to pardon convicted gay and bisexual men

British government on Thursday announced that it will posthumously pardon thousands of gay and bisexual men “convicted for consensual same-sex relationships before the change in the law.”

The gesture could see Oscar Wilde receive a pardon, as well as thousands of others who had been convicted of now-abolished sexual offences in England and Wales.

“It is hugely important that we pardon people convicted of historical sexual offences who would be innocent of any crime today,” said U.K. Justice Minister Sam Gyimah in a press release. The decision, paired with the “existing disregard process” would “put right these wrongs,” he added.

Thursday’s announcement builds on the 2013 posthumous royal pardon of Alan Turing, a celebrated cryptographer and a World War Two code-breaker who had killed himself two years after the 1952 conviction for gross indecency.